Chronically suicidal Wilbur (
Jamie Sives) and his good-hearted big brother Harbour (
Adrian Rawlins) are in their thirties when their father dies, leaving them a worn down second-hand bookshop in Glasgow. Wilbur survives yet another suicide attempt and goes to the hospital, where like Harbour, the doctor believes that Wilbur needs a girlfriend. But even though women fall for Wilbur all the time, they can't get close to him.
In fact, it is Harbour who falls in love when a shy and intense woman, Alice (Shirley Henderson), enters the lives of the brothers. Alice lives a life in isolation with her little daughter, Mary. She supplements her job as a cleaning lady at the hospital's surgical ward, selling books that the patients have left behind. Little by little, Wilbur, Harbour and Alice become inseparable. Wilbur starts regaining his lust for life, Alice starts to come out of her shell, and Mary starts reading the thousands of books in the second-hand bookshop.
Harbour has never been happier, but he carries a deep secret that threatens to surface.